Chocolate Mousse Cake with Raspberry

My niece loves chocolate. I found this recipe from King Arthur Flour web site and made it for her birthday. It was one of the more complicated cakes to make because of the number of ingredients and steps involved. At the end, it was well worth it since my niece said it was the best chocolate cake ever :-)

Ingredients

CAKE
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk ( I replaced with 1 cup of milk + 1 TBSP fresh squeezed lemon juice)
1 cup boiling water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs

FILLING
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon Instant ClearJel (Could not find this is local grocery store, replaced with 1 pack of Gelatin)
2 tablespoons butter, soft
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate mini chips
1 1/2 to 2 pints fresh raspberries

FROSTING
1/2 cup butter-flavored vegetable shortening
1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Steps:

For the cake layers: 
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F.
2. Grease and flour two 8" round by 3" deep cake pans, or four 8" round pans. I used three 9" pans.
3. Sift together or whisk the dry ingredients through a strainer into a large mixing bowl.
4. Combine the oil, buttermilk, boiling water and vanilla in a medium bowl or large measuring cup. Add to the dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl, then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Mix on medium speed for another 2 minutes or until smooth.

6. Divide the batter among the prepared pans.
7. Bake for 50 minutes for 3" deep pans, or 28 to 33 minutes for four 8" pans, or 9" layers, until the cake just begins to pull away from the edge of the pan, and a tester inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs.
8. Remove from the oven and place on a rack to cool completely.

For the filling: 
1. Beat the heavy cream until soft peaks form.
2. Whisk together 1/4 cup of the confectioners' sugar with the Instant ClearJel (Gelatin) and add to the whipped cream.
3. Beat until the cream has stiff peaks; set aside.
4. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, cream cheese, remaining 3/4 cup of confectioners' sugar and vanilla. Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes, or until well-blended and smooth.
5. Add the melted chocolate to the bowl and mix on medium speed for 1 minute, or until light and fluffy.
6. Scrape the mixing bowl, then fold in the whipped cream and mini chocolate chips. Refrigerate the filling until you're ready to assemble the cake.

For the frosting: 
1. In a large bowl, beat together the shortening, butter, and salt. Sift the confectioners' sugar and cocoa through a strainer to remove any lumps, and add to the bowl alternately with the milk. Add the vanilla. Mix on medium-high speed for 2 minutes, or until fluffy.

To assemble the cake:
1. Turn the cooled layers out of their pans. Split them horizontally if you've baked two deep 8" cakes; trim any domes off the tops if you've baked 4 individual layers.
2. Place the first layer on a serving plate (line the edges with strips of waxed or parchment paper to keep the plate clean), and spread it with 1 cup of the filling. Cut 1/2 pint of raspberries in half and place them over the filling, covering its entire surface.

3. Repeat until all the layers are stacked; place the last layer bottom-side up for a flat surface on top. Once the layers are assembled with filling and raspberries, place the cake in the refrigerator or freezer for at least 30 minutes to firm it up; this will make frosting the cake much easier, since the layers are less likely to slide around, and the crumbs from the cake layers will be set.
4. Frost the top and sides of the cake, decorating with more frosting and fresh raspberries.

French Macaron with Cream Cheese Filling

This recipe has fewer ingredient than the previous Rose Raspberry French Macaron, with similar steps.

Macaron Shells

Ingredients:

Powdered sugar - 150 g
Almond flour - 150 g
Egg white - 3 eggs, about 105 g, at room temperature
Superfine sugar - 92-100 g (used spice grinder to grind the granulated sugar)
Food color - 6 drops

Steps:

1. Same procedure as Rose Raspberry French Macaron, except baking instruction.
2. Preheat convention oven 310°F
3. Bake for 5 minutes
4. Reduce oven to 275°F, and bake 8 minutes
5. Cover the cookies with a big sheet of aluminum foil and bake for the last 5-8 minutes.

Cream Cheese Filling

Ingredients:

Cream cheese - 1 package, 8 oz at room temperature
Butter - 1-2 TBSP at room temperature
Powdered sugar - 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup (to taste)
Vanilla extract - 1 and 1/2 tsp

Steps:

1. Whip cream cheese and butter together until light and fluffy.
2. Whip in sugar and vanilla extract.

Assemble and Enjoy

Assemble the cookies, and put in a sealed container in refrigerator. The cookies taste better after 1-2 days when the flavors meld and soften the shell a bit. Serve at room temperature.

Taiwanese Sticky Rice Sausage (台式糯米腸)

With casing left from my Sichuan Spicy Sausage this year, I made some Taiwanese sticky rice sausage. The traditional style would have included peanut. With nut allergy in the family, I picked this nut free one from a post at Carol's Blog. I also mixed in some red yeast rice powder to add color to the sausage.

Ingredients

Glutinous rice - 600 g
Dried Shiitake mushrooms - 8-10
Red shallots - 6-8
Dried shrimp - 4 TBSP
Water - 6-8 TBSP
Natural Hog Sausage Casings  - about 12 ft
Cotton thread to tie the sausage
Rice wine - 4 TBSP
Soy sauce - 2 TBSP
Salt - 1 tsp
White pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
Red yeast rice powder - 2 TBSP to add color

Steps

1. Soak rice in cold water for 5-6 hours, then drain the water
2. Soak dry mushrooms in cold water until soften, then dice them
3. Soak dry shrimp in cold water for 5 minutes, then drain the water.
4. Dice the red shallots.
5. In a fry pan, add 2-4 TBSP of oil, then add the red shallots, shrimp, and mushroom in sequence to stir fry for 2-3 minutes.
6. Add the rice, rice wine, soy sauce, salt, white pepper powder, water, and stir fry for 5-6 minutes.

7. Use sausage attachment for Kitchen Aid to stuff the sausages. Make the sausage is loosely filled, otherwise, it will burst when steamed.
8. Use cotton thread to tie the sausage into smaller links, and use needle to poke some holes around the sausage.

9. Steam for 40 minutes or until the rice is fully cooked.

Chinese New Year Cake 2016

This was a 12"x12" whipped cream cake.

There were two layers of Chiffon cakes, and ingredients for each layer:
Egg - 10 Large
Cake flour - 170g
Oil - 80g
Milk - 80g
Sugar - 120g for egg white
Sugar - 60g for egg yolk

The frosting was made from
Heavy whipping cream - 8 cups
Powdered sugar - 2 cups
Gelatin - 2 bags

The red decoration was made from red Marshmallow Fondant. They were made 3 days ahead so that they could dry thoroughly before putting on the cake.

The writing and the firecracker fuse was piped with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.

Koi Coconut Rice Cake (锦鲤椰汁年糕)

I experimented two types of rice cakes. One cake used glutinous rice flour and was soft and sticky. The other cake used rice flour, and was dense and chewy. You can use any combination in between to get to the texture preferred. Same Koi mold was used for both.

Glutinous Rice Cake

Ingredients

Glutinous rice flour - 1 and 3/4 cup
Wheat starch - 1/3 cup
Sugar - 1/3 to 2/3 cup
Water - 3/4 cup
Coconut milk - 3/4 cup
Makes 2 big Koi rice cakes

Steps

1. Spray the koi mold with oil
2. Mix glutinous rice flour and wheat starch in a mixing bowl
3. Add sugar to water and microwave 1 minute. Stir to make sure sugar is dissolved. Then stir in coconut milk.
4. Pour the coconut solution to the flour bowl. Keep stirring until you get a smooth batter.
5. Take some batter out and color it red with food color
6. First place some red batter in the koi mold around fish mouth, fins, tail, back, then pour in white batter.
7.Steam the rice cake in mold for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
8. Take koi out of mold after it is cool down.

Rice Cake

Ingredients

Rice flour - 2 cups
Wheat flour - 1 cup
Coconut milk -  1 cup
Milk - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Oil - 2 TBSP
Makes 3 Koi rice cakes

Steps

1. Mix rice flour and wheat starch in a mixing bowl
2. Boil coconut milk and milk with sugar until sugar is fully dissolved
3. Pour milk solution into flour bowl and mix. Then add oil and knead until smooth.
4. Take 1/4 cup out of the dough to color it red.
5. Spray Koi mold with oil, then fill the mold with red and white dough. Press firm in shape and then take the Koi out of mold.
6. Steam Koi rice cake for 40 minutes